Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress

Abstract

Names for Navy ships traditionally have been chosen and announced by the Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of the President and in accordance with rules prescribed by Congress. Rules for giving certain types of names to certain types of Navy ships have evolved over time. The Navy states that while it "has attempted to be systematic in naming its ships, like all institutions it has been subject to evolutionary change, and the name sources of the Navy's ships have not been immune to this change." There have been exceptions to the Navy's ship-naming rules, particularly for the purpose of naming a ship for a person when the rule for that type of ship would have called for it to be named for something else. Some observers in recent years have perceived a breakdown in, or corruption of, the rules for naming Navy ships.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 23, 2009
Accession Number
ADA509972

Entities

People

  • Ronald O'Rourke

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Carriers
  • Amphibious Ships
  • Attack Submarines
  • Carrier Based Aircraft
  • Congress
  • Law
  • Marine Transportation
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Nuclear Propulsion
  • Second World War
  • United States

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.